Puddled People: The Art of Peter Renzetti 

I have known Peter for over 60 years. He is a man with golden hands. He is a jeweler, an instrument maker, a musician, an Engraver, a blacksmith, a toolmaker amongst just a few things that he does beautifully. He is a national treasure. Thanks for doing this video.

What a talented artist and a great storyteller. Talented and intelligent older people like him should be treasured and treated with the upmost respect for having not turned bitter in this crazy world. Thank you sir.

Congratulations sir. As a man who started welding in a school shop class, sixty years ago, I can attest to the great skill that this man has. The smooth surface texture that his work shows. When you listen to this man describe his intentions in his sculpture, you realize that you are in the presence of a gifted person.

Peter is a fantastic sculptor and it’s lovely to see him build these figures. It’s amazing to think that he started doing this the same year as I did, only my figures were made from copper brazing rod. They sold at a flea market, in an old warehouse, on Edward St Brisbane and I made a bit pocket money. I’m no sculptor and my bronze people were very rudimentary 🤣 but it was obvious what they were meant to be. I only did it for a few months while recovering from a near fatal car smash. Just lately I made a garden ‘sculpture’ of a Brolga ( Australian Crane) for a good friend of ours, from old horse shoes. I take my hat off to this man. Thank you for showing this to us Drew. 👏👏

I still enjoy my puddle person “runner” I purchased from Peter in 1972 and follow his adventures to this day. See you in Johnstown in June I hope.

The Master of heat control. Absolutely amazing!

It is hard to understate the amount of skill this requires. What a humble and creative dude. We need a billion more like him!

Wow Peter is an amazing artist! I love his artwork ! Thank you for sharing!!

what a legend. thx for the insides

this is one of those videos i found myself trying to like about 5 times

What an absolute gent! Love his work and his character; would love to share a beer with him.

absolutely incredible. i would so adore one if they were available. very very impressive, and what a wonderfull talent. he has my respect. he seems like a very interesting person and probably has some wonderful stories

Thank you so much for making and sharing this video! I can't help but think every little video like this is being added to the library of human knowledge and you deserve recognition for documenting this wonderful contribution

Definitely an artist!

I love an artist who can explain his talents so well and make the whole thing beautiful. Rivetted.

Thank you for the video! Very interesting to watch and listen to his history and knowledge on things. This household puts great respect into a person like him who puts a lot of their time and tedious work into making such crafts. Easily got our thumbs up!

Such a great teacher and artist. I'll be studying for that test on Monday. Thanks Drew and Pete.

What incredible work he does. I would love to own a few of his pieces myself.

Fantastic work, and what a generous guy wth his time and experience....Great video......Cheers

This was great to see and have it explained so well ! For me personally it brings back memories of high school in the mid 70s , I didn’t know anybody did this back then but I made a larger dragon with wings attacking a castle using his method. Unfortunately my art was lost to history which has bothered me ever since. I’m 68 now. This has inspired me to give it a try again. When I was younger I didn’t have the means to buy a torch set but I ended up in the refrigeration trade so I have the equipment now and I just retired so back to my second childhood 😊

Fantastic work, loved hearing about the process.

Always a pleasure to see a true artist at his work.

Thank you for introducing us to this man and his art. He stated that he sells his pieces and we would really appreciate it if you could provide links for any catalogs he may have online.

This is by far one of the coolest things I've seen on like a year of YT besides the UFO congressional hearings.

What he’s doing is very difficult, but he’s so skilled , he makes it look deceptively simple. Beautiful art!!! 👍🏻👊🏻

Absolutely brilliant, thanks for showing🇳🇴

Hats off I've been TIG welding 42 years and I know exactly how you're doing these things and thinking of them because sometimes they say I can fill a gap as long as I can walk across it and that's just building up those things those are some of the old timers taught me in the 70s an early 80s. Younger generation just doesn't seem to be interested in the trades and things and it's a skill that takes time to learn and they're going to be a big gap in the future. I wish there was a way to download my knowledge so that is not lost forever

This popped up in my feed today! I'm betting this gentleman is related to Robin Renzetti. ( www.youtube.com/@ROBRENZ ). I can see the family resemblance. His father perhaps, or an older brother? Robin is a master "Practitioner of the Mechanical Arts". And Peter here is a member of the "Patient Order of Meticulous Metalsmiths". Def chips off the same block I would say. Both are extremely fascinating and accomplished individuals worthy of all of our admiration. Thanks for sharing this Drew. Well done! I will take a look at your previous efforts on RU-vid soon as well. 👍

"At no time did my fingers leave my hands." lmao..... That's the way it goes.

What a wonderful fellow!

great video, always amazing to hear someone with such a great talent explain their craft

Drew-Thank you so much for putting up this video. I'd never watched Peter make one of these and then to be the subject of one of his creations was quite an honor.

What fantastic artwork! I love this.😊

This is absolutely amazing such wonderful craftsmanship and a such an interesting gentleman

The little anvil is awesome.

*Thank You* for stories or your varying techniques and Artistic History through time. Art Inspires *endless visions:* One's 'Laboring edge', to Alexander Calder's work with wire & _flowing movements._

Very cool!

On an engravers block, perfect!

incredible thanks for sharing

Very CooL Art

Thank you for sharing!

Incredible!

Fantastic work

OMG... you master ❤

Great work

I had no idea anyone else molten sculpted like this..been doing it off and on whenever the mood struck me at the welding bench..I do it with TIG in all sorts of metals..

Well done interview!

Fantastic! I'd love to add one of these to my shelf of fame..

This is cool, thanks for sharing!

Very very cool work.I don't witch is more interesting, the art or Peter .

❤❤❤❤❤❤ Genius

I don't think that he is the "first", though: When I was 13 years old, in 1970, I began working for the jeweler David Yurman. He had a line of figures... Angels, insects, botanicals (apple tree, seed, etc.), frogs (tree frog, large frog), and others, which were made exactly like this. David used bronze welding rod, not steel. But he used an oxy/acetylene mini torch to build up these figures, exactly like this artist does. These figures were then cast into brass and silver belt buckles. I finished thousands of them. I would cut off the "sprues", then wire brush, patina, then buff and polish them to a high shine. They were lost-wax cast by the famous Tallix firm in Peekskill, NY, mostly in brass (Tallix made some of the Rolls Royce hood ornaments). But David also created many one-off pieces using the same technique. Some were figures of living things, others were free form designs. I recently came across one of these originals when a family member died, and we found it in her things. Yurman gradually moved away from these "dripped" designs, through the late 70'd and the 1980's. I worked again for him in the late 70's, and he was doing some of the drip work, but more silver work with set stones. Then he moved through beaded necklaces with pendents... But when I visited his shop in Manhattan in the early 1980's, he did have a couple of nice pendents made with this drip technique. One was a large pendant which was very organic... it looked like a rib cage to me. Of course after about the mid-1980's, David's work morphed into many of the "Celtic-themed", roped bracelets, necklaces and so on, that he is now known for. And also, of course, his watch lines. This guy's work is wonderful, no doubt. But he is not the first by any means. In fact there used to be others, in the 1970's, doing work just like this... I saw several at art shows in the Northeast around then. My friend Orvello Wood (and sometime employer, he taught me to cut stones) made steel scupltures... "found art" (I have one of his works in my back yard today), which encorporated this technique in places. He made figures like this, too. Was the artist in the original video from the Northeast? Maybe I've seen his work, too, "back in the day". Heck I even made many figures like this back then, as a hobby. In 1970 I took a sculpture course, and made a "kinetic" sculpture out of steel welding rod, which had ramps for steel balls... and I decorated it with "drip" designs, such as flags and banners. Not sure if I put people on it... but I made all sorts of things with this method. I would not be surprised if we didn't find people doing this in the 50's... or even pre-WWII. So nice work, but it is not an original idea, by any means.

Very nice indeed !😊 to bad about all the noises in the background !!!!

Thats one amazing man.

What a gem!

Amazing

Amazing wow

whatever he's drinking from that giant mug- i want some!!

This is too cool

And I thought I was a hot-shot TIG welder. Oh man.

Thats just awesome

Brilliance

Most Excellent ¿

so WHERE do you buy his pieces???

Yes, more carving!

wow !!

What is the make & model of the torch you are using please ...............

that dude is good at gas welding!

As a newbie to the welding scene. I’ve gotten the touch oxygen/propane. Just need to know what the welding rod is, is it copper. I would appreciate it so much if someone could get back to me? Thanks y’all.

Wonder if Sky picked this up from you? Sky was an amazing welder at precision cast parts..... I was the one who had to grind the puddle people out of 2.5 hydraulic tubes. They were all anatomically correct 😅😅

Where can you buy them?

Is any of your work collected by the Smithsonian Institution?

Un impresor 3D humano

Robin's dad or uncle? It seems that talent may have a genetic element.

Great video! I just wish the distraction in the background was not there. That guy giving a talk and the incessant table banging reminded me of a toddler who had found his father’s hammer and was busying himself destroying mama’s antique coffee table. By the end of this video I had to take a nerve pill and have a nap to recover. Lol.

wow nice

Rose colored glasses still cook your eye but allow you to see thru the visible glow (glare/flare). All those waves outside of the visible light spectrum are still blasting your eyeballs. Welding green lens shades block the bad wavelengths. The more UV and IR it blocks the more visible light it blocks and the darker the shade. So 40 years later some1 using a shade 5 should have better eyeball luck than some1 who used a 3. But using only didymium glasses is using a safety rating of shade 0. My rule is if your eyes feel sun burnt youre obviously cooking your eyeballs out. Maybe some day well get some Augmented reality goggles so you can see perfect without exposing your precious eyeballs to IR and UV or whatever. As of now you gotta recognize the risk to how much ball destroying radiation you produce, based on the size of molten material and size of the flame, and exposure times. Whatever its a free country.

he is an analog 3d printer

This it called stack, it’s used to train people how to braze!

That is not molten steel, iron, or any other ferric based rod. Great work, just NOT steel. A bronze alloy brazing rod, from the sparking I think it is a work hardening blend. Yes, it is high phosphorus content, and from the spark at times, slightly non-homogeneous mix prior to compression. Edited after watching more...

I once made stickmen and women from thin wire soldered together, about 2cm in height for an architecture model. It was incredible hard, the arms would often fall off from the spine, the head would drop on the floor and the women's boobs, well... every time one thing was ok, the other thing fell off😂

Is Peter related to Robin?

In the 1960s when I was going to high school welding shop metal shop woodshop electronics were all part of the teaching curriculum based on the needs of the community what he’s doing here I did when I was 11 years old I’m 71 now but this is plain old simple beginning welding shop for kids who never went to school or was trained on how to weld anythingAnd you have to touch this stuff will do with your fingers smell it see where is the metal radiates the most heat you’re not going to get that kind of instruction from these ridiculous cell phones

additive manufacturing

I was doing this on production welding 42 YEARS AGO . ... The boss had a name for it ...he called it FUCKINABOUT !!!! I've also done it on a mig by turning the wire feed to very low ... Nothing on this planets New they say 😏

I do this sht in my sleep.

odd how this will probably be his legacy... aside from his work... what a thing the internet is...

tremendous skill but seems kinda expensive gas wise

No one elese can do this.